The present invention relates to a method and system for converting engineering data into three-dimensional (3D) modeling data to permit the production of technically accurate 3D models. More particularly, this invention relates to a method by which a user can electronically convert technically accurate engineering data into an alternate and generally smaller but still technically accurate format, transport the converted data to a 3D modeling software component and have the 3D modeling software component create technically accurate photo realistic 3D models.
In the architectural industry, for example, engineering designs are normally presented as words (specifications) and two-dimensional drawings (plan sets). The plan sets are most often created in computer aided design (CAD) software packages and are extremely detailed and accurate. While these specifications and plan sets are a compact and efficient means of delivering the necessary information for construction of the underlying project, they require interpretation and a high level of understanding of the engineering process in order to visualize the final as-built conditions. As the complexity of a project increases, visualization becomes difficult even for technically astute engineers and architects. Over the years it has been found that a better way to convey design concepts is through hand-made artist's renderings or, as of late, photo realistic artist's renderings, generated from computerized 3D models.
While artist's renderings can be beautiful and compelling, they often lack true dimensional accuracy. Artist's renderings are simply a graphical representation of the artist's interpretation of the project based on the information they have been provided (often the specification and plan sets) and are ultimately quite subjective. Apart from being technically inaccurate, artist's renderings are rather time-consuming, expensive and do not lend themselves to frequent design changes.
A truer and more accurate representation of design concepts can be achieved through the use of mathematically defined, three-dimensional computer models. These types of models provide unrestricted movement throughout a scene and can be rendered from any point-of-view. Many engineers use three-dimensional design tools as part of their everyday workflows. Often these tools have some limited 3D visualization (rendering) capability built-in and are adequate to help the designer picture his/her design but are not up to the standards of quality and sophistication expected in the 3D graphic arts community. That level of quality, the norm in the general media, is what the public has come to expect. To achieve that quality, the actual design information from the engineering design software must be transferred in some way to a professional 3D modeling package. The problem, however, is that the underlying file format of engineering software is generally not compatible with industry standard 3D modeling packages.
In engineering design software packages, designs are often represented by triangulated irregular networks (“TIN”) often called TIN models. TINs, among others, are widely used in geographic information systems (“GIS”) to represent digital terrain models. TINs are a surface representation derived from irregularly spaced sample points and multiple types of breakline features. TINs are formed by connecting a set of points (scattered or gridded) having x, y and z coordinates. These points are connected by edges to form a set of non overlapping triangles used to represent the surface. The surface is assumed to change its planar continuity at adjoining triangles' edges. Each TIN has data associated therewith that includes topological relationships between points and their proximal triangles. FIG. 1 illustrates a TIN model of a sunken roadway with an overpass.
While TIN models are a generally acceptable method of representing designs, large or complex models create an overwhelming amount of data as x, y and z information is needed for each point in the model. This large amount of data often exceeds the memory and processing capacity of even dedicated high-end computers frequently causing them to crash. Additionally, the data from the engineering design software package is generally in a file format which is incompatible with 3D modeling packages, thereby making it unusable. Consequently, to make use of high-end professional 3D modeling packages, designs, which have already been created in a engineering design software package, must regularly be re-created from scratch in the 3D modeling package.
The resulting design created anew in the 3D modeling package does not make direct use of the data from the design created in the engineering design software package. In this case, the operator of the 3D modeling package manually approximates the design of the engineering design software package and tries to recreate the appearance of the design in the 3D modeling package. An attempt is made to connect multiple points eliminating the planar edges created by the triangles, thus creating more continuous surface features. In this respect, the 3D modeling package operator is merely functioning like the artist in the aforementioned artist rendering scenario and is not able to directly use the electronic engineering data from the engineering design software package. This duplication of effort is costly, time-consuming and reduces the accuracy of the resulting 3D model.
Therefore, there is a need for a method of converting complex engineering design data to a format usable by commercially available professional 3D modeling packages.